Chapter 080: You Could Be Stronger Than Me
The daytime classes were simple, and the rewards they generated were simple.
Matsushita Yusuke had largely stopped paying close attention to them.
But with the Hollow panel now open, the daily trickle had started producing scattered bonuses of its own: Hierro +1 here, Hollow Power +1 there, small numbers running quietly in the background. Nothing that changed the picture by itself. Enough, accumulated, to add up to something.
High-level players with secondary accounts knew this feeling. The gains were modest but the satisfaction was disproportionate.
The daytime passed without incident.
When evening came, Matsushita Yusuke made his way to the west gate and waited at the agreed time and location. Aizen's silhouette appeared without delay.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go."
This time, Tosen wasn't with them.
Which made sense. Private Kido instruction was the purpose, and Tosen's natural aptitude didn't lie in that direction. Including him would have served no purpose.
And without needing to worry about the sentries: Kyoka Suigetsu. Moving in and out of Seireitei unnoticed was trivially easy for Aizen. The practicalities of that were slightly uncomfortable to think about, but there it was.
"Let's go a bit further out today. Closer to the inner districts is still a little too exposed."
That sounded overcautious on the surface. Matsushita Yusuke didn't take it that way.
This was someone who had spent considerable time in the Rukongai during the Hogyoku research period, moving around in ways that couldn't be acknowledged officially. When it came to the specific geography of crime in Soul Society, no one had more direct experience.
He followed without comment.
They walked until District 70 before stopping.
At this distance, the buildings had mostly given up pretending to be buildings. The structures were irregular and poorly maintained, and even at this hour there were people moving through the streets: gaunt figures in worn-out clothing, expressions blank, movements slow and mechanical.
The textbook said that spiritual bodies were nearly impossible to kill through starvation. In theory, reishi and water were enough to sustain them at a basic level indefinitely. Looking at the people in front of him, the gap between "technically alive" and "actually living" was difficult to describe.
This was, in its own way, a practical lesson.
Matsushita Yusuke scratched his head and didn't say anything.
"Here should do, Matsushita-kun."
Aizen stopped and turned toward him.
"What I want to teach is fairly straightforward. The focus is Kido development. Though if other things come up that you want to ask about, feel free. Don't hold back on any of it."
Since he was being specifically invited:
"I'm counting on you, Aizen-sensei. I want to learn everything."
The opportunity was real. Learning directly from someone at Aizen's level of Kido mastery was not something that happened twice.
Aizen gave a clear confirmation, and the familiar notification appeared.
[Quest: Train in Kido under Aizen Sosuke]
[Profile: Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. You're fortunate in this case: Aizen Sosuke's grasp of Kido places him among a very small number of practitioners across all three worlds. Train under him, absorb what he knows, and see if you can take it further than he did.]
[Rewards: Reiatsu Level +10, Kido +5, Zanpakuto Kido +5, Hollow Power +3, Cero +3]
The reward pool had gotten considerably larger since the Hollow panel opened.
Not complaining, exactly. Just noting that the system was adding items faster than it was organizing them. Someone at development needed to think about interface bloat.
Matsushita Yusuke took a breath, reset his expression, and looked at Aizen seriously.
He had taken a real beating from Aizen's Kido before. That was with the old numbers.
But if the conditions were fixed to Kido-only combat: his numbers now were not what they were before. The ground between them had closed.
Time to show Aizen what that looked like.
He went in with genuine enthusiasm.
Ten minutes later he was on the ground, letting Aizen apply Kaido to whatever damage had accumulated, and making sounds that corresponded to the various points of impact.
"The raw output and execution quality are both very high. But there's still a great deal of room to develop further. Your approach to using power is still a little unrefined, Matsushita-kun."
Criticism. Earned criticism.
He nodded and accepted it.
Because it was accurate. Aizen's ability to identify an opening mid-exchange and adjust his incantation and output on the fly in real time was operating at a level Matsushita Yusuke genuinely could not match. On several occasions Aizen had landed second and still connected first. The timing on it defied what should have been possible.
Matsushita Yusuke had gotten thoroughly outmaneuvered.
"To be direct: purely in terms of power output, you've reached a level that genuinely surprises me."
Criticism followed by something genuine. A real teaching approach.
He sat up, still catching his breath, and thought through what had gone wrong.
Aizen was right. The power was there. The experience to deploy it cleanly wasn't. The gaps kept appearing in the same places, and Aizen had hit every single one of them at the right moment.
On several occasions the Hado had nearly destabilized in his own hands before it finished.
He pushed past the frustration and asked the honest question.
"Aizen-sensei. Starting from where I am now: how long would it take me to reach your level?"
Aizen considered it briefly.
"Probably a few decades."
That long.
Genuinely a little deflating.
"But Matsushita-kun is somewhat different."
Aizen looked over at him with a smile, something thoughtful in his eyes, and said slowly:
"If it's you specifically: I think you could get there in about half a year."
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